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Omg! you would not beleive this

superimposedhope

Somewhat Unstable
Hey there,
My daughter got accepted into this special school. It's a school for exceptional mathematics. I went to the openhouse tonight and O....M.....G. You would not beleive what they teach these kids at this school.

EDIT: This is a grade school!

1) They have their own Wells Fargo account that they must manage and balance weekly.
2) They learn how to pick stocks and track them. Make decisions about the stocks future and how to decide when its time to jump ship before you sink with it.
3) Each class creates their own society with its own monetary units. Each child must undertake entreprenuerism (sp?), create their own business complete with info packet on:
Name, overhead, items or services to be sold, cost, proposal with reasons for item or services , why it will be needed or wanted, how to market said items or services.
4) Monitor as a class the value of their monetary unit against other classes.
5) Keep records of Loss/Gains
6) Those with profitable businesses may start purchasing the services of employees. While owners of businesses that are failing may apply for part time jobs with the profitable employers. The school has a business Professor (Creighton University volunteer Professor) that comes to classes and helps the children with failing businesses to understand the reasons  and how to correct and modify their business to be succesful.

7) The school has its own Post Office where each class has an address as well as staff members. Classes take monthly turns running the post office. Children may mail letters, pictures etc... to each other in different classes, teachers or the to their parents, friends homes. (It is a real post office, monitored daily by a postmaster)

8) 2 Computer labs with I-Lab computers (40 in all)
 
9) All the while carrying on normal studies.

I am absolutely amazed and excited that my daughter will have the chance for a jump on the world that I never had. I think this is a wonderful opporotunity for her. To be honest I have no idea how to pick a stock but these 3rd graders do.

Oh, They also have to pick a local business and make judgements on what the business will do in the future based on demand and economy, product, profit/loss, etc....

I couldn't have asked for a better chance for my child than this.  
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Joe
 
Congratulations. It sounds like you have every reason in the world to be proud.
 
Now that would have been cool in my school years. Man, what we missed. Congrats man. The best to your little girl!!!
 
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Man, I don't know if I could do all that stuff NOW! That's great news!
 
I read with delight what you wrote and I am very impressed.  I was particularly attracted to this, "Those with profitable businesses may start purchasing the services of employees. While owners of businesses that are failing may apply for part time jobs with the profitable employers."  That is the real world and exposure to these concepts at such a young age and in such a non threatening environment is an exceptional opportunity.

Our schools are struggling for program money around here. Both our public and private schools have lost most of our after school programs which is really sad.  The public schools are down to a handful of athletic and music programs as extra curriculum activities. Parents of public schools are out trying to get property taxes increased while parents of parochial schools are coming in strong to volunteer and bail out our schools doing what ever we can do to enhance the educational experience for our children with our own money.  We have a Post Office that is kid run and a school store that is kid run and the children are doing a bang up job managing them on a rotational basis. We have reps from a local bank who come in weekly and help all kids with their new checking accounts and minimum balances were waived.  Our history, social studies, and science fairs are back this year as is our spelling bee and our speech contest. We had lemonade stands where the kids had to come up with their own marketing strategies to attract buyers by competing against each other which was very interesting but we certainly have nothing comparable to what you outlined above. That is an incredibly comprehesive offering for your daughter.

You daughter is very blessed to have a school such as what you described in the area and doubly blessed to have been accepted into their program. Sounds as if you have a gifted child there who has talents that are going to be nurtured so they develop.  Good for her and good for you! I love hearing success stories particularly when they involve children.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (superimposedhope @ Mar. 16 2005,10:33)]6) Those with profitable businesses may start purchasing the services of employees. While owners of businesses that are failing may apply for part time jobs with the profitable employers. The school has a business Professor (Creighton University volunteer Professor) that comes to classes and helps the children with failing businesses to understand the reasons  and how to correct and modify their business to be succesful.
its a school where not everybody wins!!! talk about real world for once.

sounds like an awesome class, wish i would have had such an oppertunity. very cool stuff. congrats.
 
It is very cool. I couldn't beleive it. Now that doesn't mean OPS (Omaha Public School) is not failing cause unfortunately it is like most Public districts. This school while it is part of OPS it is also given special grants for the extras that it provides and is further funded by Wells Fargo and Blue Cross Blue Sheild and very well since it is the ONLY school in NE that they fund. Like a pet you might say. I was doubly impressed by the fact that the kids whos business is failing get special help from a highly credited business Prof. so that they aren't just left feeling like a failure but are taught early to seek help for what they are lacking instead of just giving up when the first time isn't successful, which we all know is usually the case. This way they learn how to correct mistakes and feel like they are a failure against other kids but rather how to regroup and restart over. If at first you don't succeed try, try, again. I think it's all too easy to feel lik4e a failure when a business is 100% from day 1, this way they learn to be cool headed and seek advice to correct rather than feel depressed.

I am .................lost for words, but very happy that I may have a chance to give my child a chance I didn't have and never will. Finally I can know that my children will not have to be ghetto kids like dad but instead successful, contributing members of society.

Joe

BTW all,
Thanks for the compliments, and yes, I too wish I would have had a chance like this in my time.
 
More than twenty years ago a federal commission on education included the following statement in its report:  “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might have viewed it as an act of war.”  Unfortunately, not much has changed since then.  Yet there are pockets of excellence in the public schools.  Joe, you and your daughter are lucky to have found one.

The factor that correlates most closely with student performance is parent involvement in school activities.  That means not just helping your child with schoolwork, but also getting involved in other types of school activities, such as open houses.  It could also mean sharing your knowledge and talents with students (in coordination with the teacher, of course).  Maybe your daughter’s classmates would like to learn about carnivorous plants.
 
Wow. That is impressive! I guess each generation behind us will have advantages we didn't have. I would have settled for decent guidance counselors when I was in high school. They did absolutely nothing at all but show you the shelf where the college handbooks were. It really would have helped a lot to have some GUIDANCE with careers and college.

Congrats to you and your daughter.
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  • #11
That sucks!  I can understand the financial industry wanting to indoctrinate the kiddies at an ever younger age, but it's shameful for the school system to go along with it.  I know they're struggling for any funding they can find, but that's a bad program.  Teach science and math and writing and history and other important things in school.  Corporate America can brainwash the kids the rest of the day.
 
  • #12
total buzzkill bruce
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  • #13
I wish I could have been indoctrinated with responsibility, cause I lived an anti-corporate, anti-societal, the hell with "The Man" life. Guess what? Since adulthood, the man has supported me half of it. My skills consist of Epiphytic plants, general labor, and asbestos removal. Not a helluva lot of good it does me but my daughter on the other hand; I can be confident that she will not have to deal with decisions like whether to feed a child or buy it a diaper. If I buy food, it'll need a diaper but if i buy a diaper it certainly won't keep the child asleep through the night like a full stomach of Ramen or Mac N' Cheese.

The school isn't about turning out CEO's of financial intitutions, it's about learning responsibility and future planning for a society that you either succeed or fail. Learning how to succeed through careful observation and planning, how to look for the niche to fill before another. Even if she turns out a CEO of a financial institute, guess who is retiring with the help of a daughter because dad wasn't indoctrinated with such obscene, silly ideas as responsibility and careful planning.
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Joe
 
  • #14
I disagree. We need to nurture the whole child so they can reach their full potential.  Children need to be children. They need to get messy and dirty, take risks, experiment, but most important of all… they need to make mistakes or they aren't going to learn anything.  A sense of belonging throughout the process is imperative. Sorry but those after school programs are every bit as necessary as getting "special help from a highly credited business Prof. so that they aren't just left feeling like a failure but are taught early to seek help for what they are lacking instead of just giving up when the first time isn't successful, which we all know is usually the case. This way they learn how to correct mistakes”.

I for one feel the self esteem deal has gone too far. Let them fail. Sometimes I really wonder where schools are going with all of the emphasis on self esteem.  Seriously, let's provide our children with some real life skills… the kind they used to teach back in the one room school houses of the prairies. We can't keep setting them up for failure.  Will a future boss give any of our children a raise if they perform horribly?  Doubtful.  Best to teach them perseverance.  We moved our kids out of the public schools. We just don't have the type that superimposedhope has.
 
  • #15
I agree about the self-asteem crap but at the same time it is important that they are show why they failed and how to correct it. I don't think it's so much self-asteem as it is just useless to let them fail and not teach why and how it can be solved, thus teaching the skills of perseveirance. Not all kids will succeed the first time, why not use the best resources possible to teach how to resolve failure because self-loathing is absolutely useless. The child that fails will likely fail over and over again unless shown why he/she has failed.

Joe
 
  • #17
Oh Lordie lordie, I wasn't disagreeing with superimposedhope... I was typing when he was typing.

You know something Joe, there's absolutely nothing wrong with manual labor. My Father is a functionally illiterate brick layer and he got all of our happy rear ends through our undergrad years. It was student loans after that but he did co-sign for us. He never could help us with our homework but... he made sure we got it done.
 
  • #18
Oh, I am not knockin the manual laborers. I am one! I just think every parent at least good ones want so much more for their children. I want my kids to understand hard work and the value of money earned but I don't want my kids to have a broken back like I do. I'm only 24 and have a herniated disc and more than 16 fractures to my ribs. My body is hardened with scars, bruises, and broken bones. Thats the life of a manual laborer. It'll always be that way!
Laura, the last part is NOT directed at you!
I want a better, more fulfilling life for my kids and now one has a shot at it, whether anyone else like it or not.
Just for the record: My daughter earned this privilige on her own through studying math concepts not yet discussed in her class, so when they got to addition she could already subtract, use money. She spent time she could be doin other intelligent rewarding things like OH....watchin T.V., playing games, screwin around on the computer (like most kids, which serveys show are terribly lazy, overweight, generally lacking any beneficial skills). So I don't wanna hear from people about indoctrinating anybody, apparently kids aren't being indoctrinated enough otherwise maybe they would have some kind of ambition besides beating Xbox games.

I am just trying to share some pride about my child and I get a F*cking debate about indoctrinating my child. So, when kids who worked hard early and skipped crap like game systems, T.V. to read and learn are employing the un-indoctrinated kids and bring home salaries tripling theirs, don't wonder why.

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$uperimposedhope
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  • #19
Another person who thinks that tv and game systems are brain drains! I must tell you we broke down and bought GameBoys though last year... it made driving any distance with more than one much more pleasurable. I have to admit the "who has the longest french fry" fight combined with "how many more minutes until we're there" followed by "he's in my space" "he's touching me" and the ever dreaded "he's looking at me now" got to us. GameBoy and Excederin became our best travel companions.

You might want to consider putting a butterfly net and a very simple 10x magnifying glass in your daughter's Easter basket this year. I've got a great set of directions for a bug hotel that kids as young as 5 can make themself if you are interested, just pm me. I can't tell you what an appreciation for nature our kids have gained by walking down to the pond with us or walking down the rail road tracks with their nets and hotels. Report cards always have A's for science on them in this house. I'm out of this thread now as I have a headache. Keep up all the good parenting with your daughter!
 
  • #20
That is truly a cool opportunity for your child. I am a firm believer in "shoot for the stars, even if you miss, your still going in the right direction." I think that many children do poorly in public schools because they are not challenged and we sadly teach a doctrine that it's never your fault in schools these days, did you here recently that a school system outlawed red ink for grades? because the 'stigma' of red ink could hurt the childs emotions... give me a break.

I am happy for the opportunity your daughter has, she is building a firm foundation for her future and probably having a blast doing it. I sure wish I knew how to handle money when I got out on my own, and I made pretty shabby stock choices as well (thought that seems to be turning around.
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Your daughter is going to have a leg up on all the other kids her age when she graduates highschool/college, she will have some real world experience... and who knows, long before then she may convince you to invest in the next Intel or Microsoft...

Do you think they would let a 29 year old child audit the courses?
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